People can be frosty at the best of times.

人们大多很冷漠，这都算是最好的情况了。

And they're dangerous at the best of times.

他们还是出了名的暴脾气呢。

Taxpayers do not like paying for civil servants at the best of times.

即使是在最好的时代，纳税人也不愿意给公务员买单。

Egypt, at the best of times, is hard to govern because society is polarised.

由于社会极化严重，在鼎盛时期，埃及仍然很难管理。

I therefore decided that I would be a grade-one thinker. I was irreverent at the best of times.

因此，我决心要做一个第一级思想者。在情况最好的时候我也并没有表现出足够的敬意。

IMMIGRATION is a sensitive subject at the best of times, and this is not one of them.

即便是在光景好的年代，移民也是个敏感话题，更何况如今光景衰败。

Those meetings are deadly at the best of times, and you know what they're like when they're bored.

那些会议一向无趣，您也知道她们感到无聊时是什么样子的。

But I'm uneasy with surprises at the best of times and I wonder if the whole exercise is entirely appropriate.

可我向来不喜欢制造惊喜，而且我觉得这么做也不太合适。

Such a transformation would be ambitious at the best of times.

即使在最好的情况下，这样的转变也是雄心勃勃的。

You see, at the best of times, Meitan-fu is not a health resort.

你看，在最好的时候， 美潭府也不是一个疗养胜地。

He's a miserable devil at the best of times.

即使在最好的时候，他也是一个悲惨的魔鬼。

It was hard enough getting Patrick's attention these days at the best of times.

这些天即使在最好的时候也很难引起帕特里克的注意。

It’s crowded at the best of times, but today it was unbearable.

【best】平时哪怕是最好的情况下人也很多，而今天则是拥挤不堪了。

Sorry about Clive, he's a miserable devil at the best of times.

别在意克莱夫它脾气好的时候都惹人讨厌。

So that's huge cost for a supermarket, which is, you know, an industry where margins are thin at the best of times.

所以这对超市来说是巨大的成本，这是一个即使在最好的时候利润也很薄的行业。

Even at the best of times it was seldom working, and at present the electric current was cut off during daylight hours.

用不着试电梯。

Which would be embarrassing at the best of times, but with public-spending cuts looming and NASA's budget flat for the foreseeable future, it is causing real strains.

在这最佳时期将会是尴尬的，但是随着公共花费削减正隐隐约约呈现并且对NASA未来的预期并不景气，它正造成真的担忧。

It was late in the afternoon by now, and the living room, which got little natural light at the best of times, was growing dimmer by degrees.

此刻已经是下午晚些时候，而客厅（在最好的时候都很少有自然光线），正在逐渐变得更加昏暗。

While temporarily free from invasion, the East was fortified. Constantinople was not easy to attack at the best of times, and soon, Theodosius II gave it near-impenetrable walls.

虽然暂时没有入侵， 但东方却得到了巩固。君士坦丁堡在最好的时候也不容易进攻， 很快，狄奥多西二世就给它筑了近乎坚不可摧的城墙。

Monsieur Defarge sold a very thin wine at the best of times, but it would seem to have been an unusually thin wine that he sold at this time.

德法基先生在最好的时候卖的是一种非常稀薄的葡萄酒，但此时他卖的似乎是一种异常稀薄的葡萄酒。